Your spine is made up of 33 irregularly shaped bones called vertebrae. Each vertebra has a hole in the middle through which the spinal cord runs.

The spinal cord can be divided into five different regions, from top to bottom: Your 7 cervical vertebrae supports your head and neck and allows you to nod and shake your head; your ribs attach to your 12 thoracic vertebrae ; your five sturdy lumbar vertebrae carries most of the weight of your upper body and provides a stable centre of gravity when you move; your sacrum is made up of five fused vertebrae – it makes up the back wall of your pelvis; your coccyx or the tailbone is made up of four fused vertebrae. It is an evolutionary remnant of the tail found in most other vertebrates.